Time & Perspective Quote by Shepard Smith

Shepard Smith is admitting, with a little wink and a little warning label, that “newsworthiness” is often less about civic gravity than about the jolt. The repeated “gee whiz” lands like an old-fashioned sound effect: wonder, shock, disbelief. It’s a childlike phrase deployed by a grown man who knows exactly what it does on television. “Gee whiz” isn’t just tone; it’s a programming strategy. It promises viewers a hit of surprise without requiring them to do much work.

Then comes the blunt split-screen of American media class markers: “A-1 in the Times” versus “Page 6 in the Post.” Smith isn’t just contrasting styles; he’s naming a hierarchy and choosing to step off it. A-1 suggests institutional authority, sober framing, and the performance of impartial importance. Page 6 signals gossip, personality, speed, and the thrill of proximity to power’s private life. By saying these stories “can’t” be written like the Times, he’s naturalizing the choice as inevitable: certain narratives are incompatible with high-minded treatment. That’s the subtextual sleight of hand that keeps infotainment from having to defend itself.

The context here is cable-era competition, where attention is scarce and emotional velocity is currency. Smith frames tabloid sensibility not as a betrayal of journalism but as a genre requirement: if the story is weird or juicy, you write it weird and juicy. The candor is refreshing; the implication is corrosive. He’s describing a newsroom logic where the audience’s appetite quietly dictates the definition of “story” in the first place.